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Saturday 2 december 2017 TECHNOLOGY
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GM to launch self-driving vehicles in big U.S. cities in 2019

next year.
By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto The automaker says it's fo-
Writer cused on deploying self-
DETROIT (AP) — General driving vehicles safely, but
Motors Co. expects to car- it also wants to beat rivals
ry passengers and deliver to market. Ammann said
goods with self-driving ve- GM is in the lead to deploy
hicles in big cities sometime the vehicles in large num-
in 2019, telling investors it's bers. Once they're on the
moving quickly and plans road, the vehicles' comput-
to be ahead of other auto- ers will constantly learn and
makers and tech compa- improve.
nies. "Getting first onto that
The Detroit automaker learning curve is pretty im-
made the announcement portant," he said.
at an investor presenta- GM estimated the total
tion in San Francisco Thurs- ride-sharing market could
day, saying that based on reach $1.6 trillion once it
its current rate of change, hits 75 percent of all rides in
it expects "commercial the U.S. Now it's less than 1
launch at scale" of the au- percent. Ammann said GM
tonomous vehicles within In this Tuesday, June 13, 2017, file photo, a self-driving Chevrolet Bolt EV that is in General Mo- now makes about $30,000
the next year or so. The tors Co.'s autonomous vehicle development program appears on display at GM's Orion Assem- per vehicle by selling them,
vehicles would not have a bly in Lake Orion, Mich. but said ride-hailing and
human backup driver, the Associated Press delivery profits could rise to
company said. hundreds of thousands of
Company executives didn't ence can be improved nition software maker Mo- self-driving car available dollars per vehicle.
say how many vehicles GM quickly and give the com- bileye. for ride-hailing services by
would deploy or what cities pany a competitive ad- Google's Waymo division is 2021. Because GM has software
they would be in, but they vantage. GM said there testing self-driving minivans GM President Dan Ammann and sensor development,
were clear that the com- still was much more difficult in Phoenix, carrying pas- said the first commercial as well as manufacturing,
pany plans to run ride-hail- engineering work to do. sengers without a backup use of EVs would be in ride- it can roll out autonomous
ing and delivery services And it's not quite clear yet driver in the front seat. An sharing. He wouldn't say if vehicles cheaper than
and quickly make money whether the automaker will employee in the back will the service would involve competitors, the company
off them — at higher profit be first. be able to stop the ve- ride-hailing company Lyft, said.
margins than it now makes Delphi, an automotive sup- hicle by pushing a button in which GM has invested
from selling cars and trucks. plier, has said it expects but won't be able to steer $500 million. More details, Investors apparently
"This business is potentially commercial vehicles to be the vehicle. Waymo plans he said, would come closer weren't impressed by the
bigger than our current using its autonomous sys- to announce a commer- to 2019. presentation or had al-
core business," Chief Finan- tem in limited areas in 2019. cial service in the next few GM's Cruise Automation ready built autonomous
cial Officer Chuck Stevens Delphi recently bought au- months. unit is testing autonomous vehicles into GM's stock
told the group. tonomous software start- German automaker Daim- Chevrolet Bolt electric ve- price. After the afternoon
GM said it is important to up NuTonomy and is also ler AG has teamed up with hicles with human backup presentation, shares of GM
be first to get the self-driv- partnering with BMW AG, supplier Bosch to develop drivers in San Francisco, De- fell 1.8 percent to close at
ing electric vehicles on the chipmaker Intel Corp. and autonomous taxis by 2020. troit and Phoenix, and has $43.04 while the broader
road so the rider experi- camera and visual recog- And Ford plans to have a plans to test in Manhattan markets ended higher.q
Snapchat seeks to attract more users by redesigning app

gel took a jab at rivals, writ- With growth stagnant, par-
ing that social media "fu- ent company Snap's stock
eled 'fake news'" because is down sharply since its ini-
of this content mixing. tial public offering earlier
"After all, how many times this year. Snap hinted at
have you shared some- changes three weeks ago,
thing you've never both- but didn't provide details
ered to read?" Spiegel then.
wrote on Axios. Beyond separating feeds,
Snapchat has not been Snapchat will now order
gaining enough users, es- posts using a formula to try
pecially beyond its core of to appeal to users' likes, in-
younger people. Instead, stead of listing them chron-
rival services have man- ologically. Facebook has
aged to copy Snapchat's long done that; Twitter and
most popular features and Instagram followed more
This photo provided by Snapchat shows screen examples of Snapchat's redesign. make them available to recently.
Associated Press a broader audience. This Even so, Spiegel seems de-
By BARBARA ORTUTAY an attempt to appeal to a publishers, celebrities and includes Stories, a way to termined to set Snapchat
AP Technology Writer broader range of users. others, much the way Twit- show photo and video apart from its bigger rivals.
NEW YORK (AP) — Snap- Users will now see two sep- ter, Facebook and other ri- snippets that disappear af- When users open Snap-
chat is separating what arate feeds. Before, the vals continue to do. ter 24 hours; Snapchat pio- chat, for instance, they will
friends share and what me- visual-messaging app was neered it, while Facebook's still see the app's camera
dia organizations publish in mixing posts from friends, Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spie- Instagram popularized it. first.q